Retail is the top industry in Canada in terms of the number of businesses, according to data released by Statistics Canada, followed by construction and professional, scientific and technical services.
In Prince George, two of those sectors made the top three according to spokesperson Alex Cote
“The biggest industry in Prince George is construction, which has 466 businesses with employees and the retail trade has 396 with employees; health care has 394,” says Alex Cote, with the Business Register division.
It’s slightly different for businesses with no employees, Cote says, where one industry tends to dominate.
“Real estate and rental and leasing, which is normal – Prince George has 1,129. The second major industry in Prince George without employees is construction – there’s 532. Number 3 is professional, scientific and technical services.”
There are 406 such businesses, which Cote says tend to be solo consultants. He says real estate, rental and leasing is often the lead industry due to the fact that anyone renting out a suite or second property is included in that category.
The number of businesses without employees in Prince George tops businesses who do have a payroll.
There are just over 3,400 businesses with employees in the city and more than 4,800 without for a total of 8,294 active Prince George businesses.
Cote says it’s not possible to accurately compare the current data to previous years due to a change in methodology.
BC has just less than 196,000 active businesses with employees, putting us third in the nation, behind Ontario (458,387) and Quebec (256,678) and ahead of Alberta (175,634).
The number of BC businesses without payroll was much higher at 416,449 but still behind Ontario and Quebec.
The national total of businesses with a payroll is 1,259,812; businesses without – 2,770,234.
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